![]() ![]() Portsmouth Fire Chief Steven Achilles also said that during a site tour of the downtown rail yard this past week. The only thing Portsmouth can make Pan Am do, McEachern contends, is force it to comply with “basic state and local building and fire codes.” “It’s hard to see how they (the city of Portsmouth) would have a better position than the town of Grafton.” “It seems to be clear and convincing,” McEachern said of the court’s decision. The court stated in its decision the sole issue in the case was “whether state and local regulation of G&U’s propane (or liquid petroleum gas) transloading facility is preempted.” The court denied Grafton’s appeal to overturn the Surface Transportation Board’s decision allowing the transloading facility to operate, even though it is in Grafton’s “Water Supply Protection Overlay District” under the town’s zoning regulations, according to the court decision. The appeals court ruled that under the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act the Surface Transportation Board has jurisdiction over transportation by rail carrier, and a transloading facility on railroad property has been ruled a railroad operation. from operating a transloading facility in that town. ![]() Court of Appeals upholding a decision made by the Surface Transportation Board finding federal law preempted state and local regulations in connection with Grafton, Massachusetts’ efforts to prohibit Grafton & Upton Railroad Co. He pointed to a recent decision by the U.S. “That’s the conclusion that I draw,” McEachern said this week. The city of Dover, along with a number of Portsmouth residents who have opposed the project since its inception and the state attorney general’s office have also joined in the fight against the project.īut now Pan Am Railways, whose railroad tracks were the focus of most of the concern during the application process, has told the city it is opening a transloading facility on its property in downtown Portsmouth from which it will move propane from railcars to trucks.Īlec McEachern, who has spent more than two years representing Sea-3, feels despite Portsmouth’s efforts to block the Newington facility’s expansion, which has operated for more than 40 years without an accident, federal law prevents Portsmouth from doing anything to block Pan Am’s operations. Those appeals – along with Sea-3’s application to the state Site Evaluation Committee for an exemption from a year-long review of its proposed expansion – have brought the project to a halt. Portsmouth’s legal department, led by Staff Attorney Jane Ferrini, filed several appeals at the town level, and filed a lawsuit against the board’s approval of the project in Rockingham Superior Court. The G&U will now marshal its resources with an eye toward building the facility as soon as possible.PORTSMOUTH – The City Council voted unanimously in June 2014 to appeal the Newington Planning Board’s decision to approve the proposed expansion of Sea-3, Inc’s propane storage and distribution facility. The decision discounted the Town’s arguments against the facility on every front, most pointedly, the contention that the railroad lacked the ability to finance the construction of the facility, when the Board wrote, “In contrast, there is substantial evidence in the record demonstrating that (Delli) Priscoli has sufficient assets to finance the project as it is currently planned.” “I would hope that the town will now stop trying to obstruct the railroad’s business and cooperate with us to develop a safe facility to distribute this increasingly needed commodity to customers throughout the region.” “After two years, hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and the associated loss of business, this long awaited decision vindicates all of the railroad’s arguments that an LPG transloading facility is in fact rail transportation as defined by federal regulations,” said G&U owner Jon Delli Priscoli. 19, 2014, the STB ruled for the railroad on all of its contentions that federal pre-emption applies to the plan to build and operate the LPG facility when it stated, in part, “…that state and local permitting and preclearance requirements, including zoning requirements, are preempted with regard to the construction and operation of the facility…” GRAFTON – The Grafton and Upton Railroad today announced that the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) has found in the railroad’s favor as it concerns the railroad’s plans to construct and operate a liquefied propane gas (LPG) transloading facility at its North Grafton rail yard located at 42 Westboro Road. ![]()
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